If you are like myself I only spray my plants and gardens as I need to for any problems that occur (insect pests and diseases).
On the other hand I don’t mind spraying liquid plant foods and products such as Magic Botanic Liquid and Mycorrcin, as they are beneficial to the health of the plants and give far better results from their weekly or two weekly sprays.
I also don’t mind using safe to use sprays such as Liquid Copper, Super Neem oil, Super Pyrethrum and Sulphur sprays if and when there is a reason to do so.
Seldom do I do a prevention spray program to avoid a seasonal problem such as aphids, curly leaf etc, unless it is essential.
For instance this season from last winter through to harvest I used the Cell Strengthening sprays on my garlic to see how effective it was to prevent the devastating Garlic Rust problem.
I am happy to say that I have now harvested my garlic and had no sign of any rust at all.
The bulbs are of a medium size not as big as I would have liked but I put that down to the difficulty of getting good seed. But it is great to have my own home grown garlic again.
One of the problems when you use any type of spray is that rain or watering can dilute the spray on the foliage making the spay less effective.
For instance if you are spraying Wallys Liquid Copper to protect against various diseases or to control a disease problem and a few days later it rains, then when the rain has finished you need to spray the copper again to re-instate your protection.
If when you made up the copper spray you had added Raingard at the rate of 1mil per litre of spray then your spray would not be diluted or washed off in the rain and be in place for up to 14 days.That saves a lot of work and money.
If you use chemical herbicides and you add Raingard to the spray it will increase your spray effectiveness by about 50%. The reason is that Raingard acts as a chemical bridge allowing the herbicide to enter the foliage making for a quicker more effective kill of the weeds.
Many years ago I learnt some interesting information about the weed killer Roundup from reading what used to be a little booklet that was supplied with 20 litre containers of Roundup.
The small 200 mil bottles of Roundup and similar glyphosate herbicides state a rate of 10 mils per litre of water.
In the commercial booklet 10 mils was only used on the hardest to kill weeds and the booklet gave information on different types of weeds down to as low as 1 mil per litre of water.
Even at 5 mils per litre of water it would kill most common weeds.
If you were to add Raingard to the Roundup spray you could for many weeds use only a couple of mils per litre of water.
I dont recommend the use of glyphosate unless there is no other practical solution to a weed problem but by reducing the amount per litre you are reducing the harm to the environment and yourself and that can be simply done by adding Raingard.
Here is my very old blurb sheet on Raingard:
Raingard is an Organic or Natural biodegradable terpenic polymer.(Made from Pine Resin)
Raingard does 4 jobs when mixed with most garden sprays including herbicides.
Like similar products eg Sprayfix, Raingard spreads and sticks the spray particles over foliage giving a better coverage.
But Raingard goes two steps further and used at the recommended rate of only 1 ml per litre of spray it will RAIN-PROOF the spray for up to 14 days in average conditions and average Rain Fall.
This means that the particles of spray are being slowly released from the film Raingard has over the foliage over the 14 days.
Raingard will dry with the spray in normal conditions of between ½ hour to an hour and a half.
Because Raingard locks spray particles on foliage for 14 days, then on food crops, any toxic sprays combined with Raingard should allow the 14 days withholding period or if the toxic spray has a longer withholding period, then the longest period would apply.
If using Raingard with Neem products or sulphur sprays, then as neither Neem or sulphur are toxic, the withholding period is not important.
But if using a Copper spray, a 14 day period should be applied to food crops as copper is toxic.
Raingard saves you time and money as it removes the need to re-spray every time it rains or you water.
Raingard acts also as a bridge for systemic sprays and greatly aids these types of sprays entry into the foliage.
Used with herbicides it will increase the effectiveness of the weed killer, often resulting (from trials) a 50% better result, when compared to not using Raingard.
Raingard is more effective (to my knowledge) than Pulse to aide Roundup into shiny or hairy leaf plants.
It is interesting to note that Raingard used with say Roundup you can reduce the amount of Roundup needed to get the same results.
Instead of 10 ml of Roundup to the litre, try 5 ml and Raingard.
Some weeds may need the stronger solution but most will die from the suggested combination.
It is also interesting to note that another one of our Organic products, Mycorrcin if added to the mix of Roundup and Raingard will also assist with a better and now faster kill as the Mycorrcin will assist in the breakdown of the dying foliage, cleaning up the area quicker.
You might like to try this as a ‘less harmful to the environment’ weed killer, 3 ml of Roundup, 5 ml of Mycorrcin Plus and 1 ml of Raingard into one litre of water.
You should find that this will kill most weeds without having to increase the amount of Roundup.
As the Mycorrcin stimulates the soil life and beneficial fungi it off-sets the damage that herbicides do to the soil and worms.
Raingard is available in 100 ml and 250 ml bottles.
Its cousin Vaporgard is a Frost protector, sea spray and wind burn protector, stress guard protection, assists in better colour and flavour to fruit, extends self life of fruit and produce, reduces water requirements for plants in summer and lasts as a film over sprayed foliage for about 3 months.
Postscript:
There are so many interesting things happening here in NZ and overseas which are not shown by our NZ Media and a number of readers have thanked me for past links and thoughts that I have shared besides gardening.
So here are some links you may like to look at:
There is also apparently a new Political Party setting up in NZ calling themselves the New National Party; NNP.
The policies they would implement if they were successful in becoming the Govt are things that just about every true Kiwi would like to see happen.
SET IN STONE POLICY STATEMENTS
- FUEL TAX: Government tax on petrol to be reduced to keep cost to the public at no more than $2 per litre. Monitor fuel suppliers and retallers profit margins.
- GST: Reduce GST on basic food items (excluding prepared cooked meals from Takeaway, Restaurant etc) to 5%.
- HE PUAPUA: Repeal He Puapua and establish a select committee to investigate Legislation and Law changes already implemented.
- S.N.A : We will scrap the SNA “Significant Natural Areas” legislation.
- UNITED NATIONS: Leave the corrupt UN and defund our contributions.
- 3 WATERS: We will scrap the 3 Waters Legislation, no more Government asset grab
- INCOME TAX: The first $25,000 of all income, including all main benefits and Superannuation will be tax free.
- COVID-19 : Continue with border restrictions (MIQ), Vaccination rollout for anyone who wants it, Personal choice on Vaccination, Other vaccination options.
- PRIMARY SECTOR: We will restore support to our Primary Sectors, Agriculture, Horticulture and
- Aquaculture. Our Primary Sector exports are a key to our financial recovery and will be boosted instead of being suppressed as they are currently.
- MMP: We will hold a binding referendum on retention of the MMP voting system during the second term of an NP government.
- OIL & GAS: Oil and Gas exploration to start up immediately both on and offshore.
- PARLIAMENT: Reduce Parliament to 99 MPs within the first 3 terms.
- NEW ZEALAND: Our fine country name to remain NEW ZEALAND
POLICIES:
- NO UTE TAX
- ONE PEOPLE ONE NATION
- NO TO VACCINATION PASSPORTS
- INCREASED FUNDING FOR AMBULANCE SERVICES
- LAW & ORDER: 25% INCREASE IN RECRUITMENT FOR 2 YEARS
- INCREASE FIRE SERVICE FUNDING AND STAFFING LEVELS
- UPGRADE ALL HOSPITAL TREATMENT CENTRES AND OUTDATED HOSPITALS
- SCRAP THE EMISSIONS TRADING SCHEME, CARBON CREDITS AND FARM FART” TAX
- BRING BACK COMMON SENSE POLICIES TO GOVERNMENT
My thoughts are even half of those things would make NZ a far better country for us to be part of.
